What has changed in the last 102 years?

For B. Black & Sons, the answer is not much. The family-run fabrics store in downtown Los Angeles, which has been around since 1922, has witnessed some seminal U.S. history. B. Black & Sons opened during the Prohibition era and operated above a network of underground tunnels that led to speakeasies and illegal alcohol consumption. It was later designated (to the chagrin of the family) as nuclear fallout shelter during the Cuban missile crisis. 

Today, the company is largely run by Barney Volk, the grandson of founder Barnett Black, and his children. Barney Volk doesn’t know how long he’s been at the company – does he start from when he was 12, spending sick days behind the counter and cutting fabric? Or when he dropped out of college to sell wool to wool-friendly cities in the northwest and Midwest? – but the family says not much has changed.

“You’d come in on a Saturday and set up, roll, cut,” Barney Volk said. “You learn by watching. You learn by doing.”

But first, some history

Barnett Black, born in what is now Ukraine, came to the United States via Ellis Island at the turn of the century. He and his wife, Sadie, settled in Chicago where Barnett would peddle pants from a pushcart. Conventional 1900s wisdom decreed the desert air of Los Angeles would be better suited for Sadie’s asthma (probably not recommended today) and the pair moved to L.A. to open a fabric store just as the city would become synonymous with the film industry.

But the parallel comings up of Tinseltown and the family-run fabrics business would prove to be mutually beneficial – the company can say its wares can be found in major motion pictures and acclaimed television shows like “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Mad Men” and “Django Unchained.” Hollywood and fashion are the main drivers of B. Black & Sons’ business, and the company sees hundreds of customers a month.

B. Black & Sons looks like a portal to another time. Carpeted floors and wood-paneled walls still cover some rooms. An elevator operator still manages the manual elevator. Often, a hatmaker can be heard pounding away on a higher floor. Bolts of fabric are spilling out of their shelves on the main floor, and there are buckets of zippers, shoulder pad silhouettes and buttons stacked against the walls.

“And that’s kind of the good thing about this business, is that it really cannot – I mean, we sell fabric for suits. There’s really not much to do,” said Andrew Volk. “It’s been the same thing for hundreds of years for fabric stores.”

A changing city

But outside of B. Black & Sons, downtown Los Angeles has seen quite the evolution. In the 1920s, it was where Barnett and Sadie Black would dress up to have a nice dinner. When Andrew Volk got involved in the family business, he said there were more infrastructure, more grocery stores, upscale restaurants. B. Black & Sons kept its doors open, and the floor had far more salesmen roaming racks of fabrics.

The Covid-19 pandemic changed that. Now, the family-run business uses a buzzer to vet customers at the door. The floor has far fewer salesmen. The family said it won’t abandon brick-and-mortar entirely but may downsize slightly.

While technology has drastically evolved in the last 100 years, and some local companies today are tinkering with artifical intelligence and trying to find use cases, B. Black & Sons hasn’t done much beyond creating a website.

“What we do is such an old-fashioned and tactile business. The internet is not exactly catered for us, but it’s a great tool and it’s something we definitely do use to keep our name out there because it’s our only advertising,” Andrew Volk said. “(Technology) is not ideal until they can design something where you can touch and feel that fabric.”

Four generations have now been involved in the family business. The fifth is currently preoccupied with baseball and soccer, according to Andrew Volk, but, “if they want it, it’s here.”

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